The in-flight broadband market currently stands at around $47 million, while live broadcast sales are around $250 million. But since people want Wi-Fi, and carriers want to make extra money off people trapped in their cabins, both will be offered. The number of broadband-enabled airplanes will rise to 800 in 2009 from 25 in 2008, In-Stat is predicting.

And the number of annual in-flight broadband connections will top 200 million by 2013, with long-haul connections dominating over short-haul connections. Despite the annoyances caused by video chats on a plane, in-flight broadband is useful since many people now run applications in the cloud and need a web connection to access them. With in-flight broadband, people can access the cloud when they’re in the clouds.